I-Team: Man in custody flees Portage Hospital ER

PORTAGE, Ind. (WLS) -- The I-Team investigated another security incident at a northwest Indiana hospital - this time in the emergency room at Portage Hospital.

Police had 33-year-old Tyrone Perry in custody at Portage Hospital after a domestic incident. Perry asked to have his handcuffs removed to use the bathroom and after he was finished, that is when he made his breakaway out the emergency room door.

It is the second time in four days there has been a security problem at a northwest Indiana hospital. It's just the latest evidence that hospitals are increasingly not quiet zones.

The latest incident actually began in a Portage neighborhood where, according to police, a woman's boyfriend had ratcheted a towel around her neck until she passed out, then tried to fight off relatives with a knife and a club.

Police arrested Tyrone Perry and charged him, initially, with domestic battery, strangulation and possession of marijuana. Perry cut his hand during the fracas in the trailer park and after he was arrested authorities brought to Portage Hospital.

While in custody, Porter County Sheriff's deputies allowed him use of a hospital bathroom and while being escorted back to treatment he surprised them by bolting out the E.R. door and running. There was a 100-yard chase before Perry tripped and was taken back into custody by police, who added charges of resisting officers and escape to his legal bill.

Last Friday, it was here at Methodist Hospital in Merrillville, Ind., when an 80-year-old woman was found murdered in her hospital bed with multiple stab wounds. Her 60-year-old son is now charged with killing her, and then proceeding to his father's home in Gary.

As the I-Team reported last week, physical attacks at hospitals are up at least 37 percent the past three years. Some hospitals, including Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, have begun training employees on how to deal with a sudden violent threat, including an active shooter.

Most metro Chicago hospitals have some kind of employee security training, but both of the Indiana incidents reveal how unpredictable and unpreventable many kinds of violent outbursts are. On Monday, the suspect in the latest incident, Tyrone Perry, is in the Porter County Jail and the hospital is fixing the E.R. doors he knocked off track.